Hamilton entrepreneurs hoping to make it into the Dragons’ Den

DRAGON'S DEN

Kaz Novak/The Hamilton Spectator

The Naked Nursing Tank team, from left, Janet Kubik, Kelly Horsley and owners Carrie Charles, and Jen Hajt, pitch their product for producers from the CBC show The Dragons' Den. Auditions were held in Hamilton Saturday.

Dragons Den

Kaz Novak/The Hamilton Spectator

Matt Faulknor, left, and Charlie Smith are show producers with The Dragons' Den, which held auditions in Hamilton on Saturday.

READING AID

Kaz Novak/The Hamilton Spectator

Merron Vermeer, left, Nicole Gibson and Katie Mouldein devised a childrens book series. They're hoping to pitch their business concept on the CBC hit show Dragons' Den.

BOOKKEEPING MADE SIMPLE

Kaz Novak/The Hamilton Spectator

Chloe St. Pierre-Grills has come up with a simpler way for small businesses to do their bookkeeping.

If you want into the Dragons’ Den, you have to get by Matt Faulknor first.

Budding entrepreneurs lined up in Hamilton Saturday for their chance to impress the Ancaster native and McMaster University graduate who is an associate producer of the CBC hit show.

They only have five to 10 minutes to sell their idea to Faulknor to have any chance of making a pitch to a panel of Canadian business experts looking to invest in promising new products.

“I’m a teddy bear,” he says about how it compares to actually being on Dragons’ Den.

“I have nothing but admiration for these entrepreneurs. I don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in my body.”

Instead, he has a good eye for interesting ideas, stories that resonate and passionate entrepreneurs. If he likes the idea, he takes it back to a team of producers and recommends it for the show.

“Let’s get naked,” yells one group of mompreneurs to him during their presentation of a tank top especially designed to make it easier to breastfeed in public.

“When you need to be naked, we’ve got you covered,” said Guelph moms Carrie Charles and Jen Hajt who created the Naked Nursing Tank after being embarrassed by their postpartum belly showing while they breastfed.

It was one of about 40 pitches to Faulknor and another associate producer at the CBC Hamilton office on James Street North from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“It’s super nerve-wracking,” said Hamilton’s Chloe St. Pierre-Grills, who was pitching a product to make bookkeeping easier for small businesses.

“I told people I was doing it so it’s out there and I can’t chicken out.”

One of Faulknor’s most successful finds came out of the Burlington auditions last year. Hamilton company Steeped Tea pitched first to him before making it on the show to ask for $250,000. The result was a deal to launch their direct-sale company into the United States.

“When they walked in, I thought it’s tea,” he said shrugging. “But it blew me out of the water. It played out in the den just as I hoped it would. They made them tea and the dragons were sold just like me.”

Producers are criss-crossing Canada, making more than 40 stops for the 2013 audition tour.

NAKED NURSING TANK

The ask: $32,000 in exchange for a 32 per cent share in the Guelph-based company

The product: a midsection coverup that makes it easier for women to breastfeed in public

The idea: Created by moms Carrie Charles and Jen Hajt, who used to cut off the upper part of their tank tops to make it easier to nurse their babies in public.

Available: Product is sold locally for about $39.99 at Springy’s, Baby World and Snuggle Bugz.

The product: A filing system to make bookkeeping easier for small businesses

The idea: Created by Hamilton bookkeeper Chloe St. Pierre-Grills, who found small businesses to be needlessly disorganized and paying too much for accountants because they don’t know the basics of bookkeeping.

The product: A series of children’s book for kindergarteners to Grade 6 featuring a lovable rat

The idea: Created by area teachers Katie Moulden, Merron Vermeer and Nicole Gibson, who had nothing to give to parents asking for ways to help their children learn to read at home. The book tells parents what to do during and after reading to build the skills needed to improve marks at school. The books also deal with themes the teachers felt are lacking, such as Remembrance Day.